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I guess I did a good job of getting Gracie to be easy with the roosters. They're chasing her now. Sigh... She's completely intimidated by them. If they flap at her (they don't peck) I have to chase them down, catch them and carry them around so they know they're not alpha. I hold them and let Gracie and Bud sniff them and hold them some more. If Gracie is this intimidated by chickens, I can only imagine how she'd be with sheep. To be fair, the roosters are as tall as the shelties are. They came from the animal shelter so who knows how they were treated before I got them. They are kind of intimidating. It's funny though, Bud doesn't act nervous around them and they don't chase him at all.

I'm taking a little more time with the baby chickens and Gracie. I'm letting her interact with them more than I let her interact with the roosters. The babies seem comfortable around her and she seems comfortable around them. I hope they don't end up bossing her around when they get bigger. This breed of chickens is supposed to be very gentle so I'm thinking everyone will be okay.

I'm not surprised about the roosters intimidating Gracie.  Roosters are aggressive and if they can get away with something they will!  I haven't really heard of chickens doing this same behavior though so I think she's safe.  I think most dogs would be intimidated by roosters flapping their wings at them!

 

I had roosters and hens years ago and amazingly they all got along well with our family dogs. They'd just hang out in the backyard together. I thought that was normal but I guess not. The roos don't even try to intimidate Bud. He doesn't back off. Bud actually stares them down. I only let the roos free roam in the afternoon and they don't generally go near the dogs except for every now and then. I've only had the roosters for a couple of months so hopefully after some more handling by me, they'll calm down.

I wonder though if Gracies herding instinct would kick in with sheep? They're a lot bigger than roosters ;)

That's true!

Although I was observing a shearing at one of dh's friends farms and I got in the pen to help out and one of the sheep head butted me in the stomach. LOL- They're not as fluffy and carefree as you'd imagine. He had border collies herding those sheep and the BC's were amazing. They almost didn't need any instruction from the owner.

I thought about asking if I could bring the shelties over to see how they are with sheep, but he told me his bc's are very territorial about the sheep so I didn't ask.